Indian Express: Bengaluru: Wednesday, December 27, 2017.
Massive
irregularities to the tune of over `200 crore have been detected in a Central
government audit inspection of the account books of the Secretary of the
Hyderabad Karnataka Region Development Board (HKRDB) in Kalaburagi. The audit
was conducted in one go for four financial years running from 2013-2014 to
2016-2017.
The findings
of the audit committee had recently been obtained through a Right to
Information (RTI) application filed by S S Hiremath, president of RTI Activists
Association, Kalaburagi.
The report by
the Indian Audit and Accounts Department, which comes under the Comptroller and
Auditor General, was readied on August 18, 2017, following a ten-day inspection
from June 26 to July 7 this year. The report points to: “Deficiencies in
tendering, violation of Karnataka Transparency in Public
Procurement
(KTPP) Act and entrustment of tenders
without authority: `209.82 crore.”
Irregularities
in the tendering process relating to procurement of 40 Reverse Osmosis water
purifiers for bus stands in HK Region resulted in an extra cost of `53. 24
lakh, it said. It listed selection of
inexperienced vendors and payments made for defective supplies as the reasons.
Citing
another violation, the audit report said that bidders were instructed to submit
their bids in sealed covers within 5 pm of July 27, 2016, for supplying water
purification units.
“Manual
tenders are clearly prohibited since April 2004. But as many as 34 manual
tenders valuing `669.71 lakh were called for by the secretary, violating KTPP
rules,” it said.Elaborating on the tenders called for engaging consultants from
third party inspections of civil works in Kalaburagi and Yadgir districts, it
said a contract valuing over `2 crore was offered to an ineligible bidder.
Accounts
Head Not Involved
Apart from RO
purifiers, tenders called for included medical equipment and furniture. “There
were no discussions/documents regarding the process of selection of the
type/model resulting in changes in technical specification after the bids were
called. The bid proceeding, including finalisation of financial bid, was done
without the involvement of the Accounts section head,” the report said.
No details
of money spent
The report also pointed out that a sum of `6
crore was released to the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and
Research, Bengaluru, to establish a similar hospital in Kalaburagi. “Though the
hospital has been completed, the details of the utilisation of the amount has not
been furnished by the institute,” the report pointed out.
The report
pointed out to the non-maintenance of a demand, collection and balance
registrar for monitoring rental dues of the residential quarters of its
staff.The report also cited non-issue of receipts for sale of tender forms,
receipts of DD towards Earnest Monthly Deposits with the amounts directly
remitted to the bank accounts.
“It could not
be ensured whether all the amounts received were remitted,” it added. The audit
was conducted by a five-member team, including former secretary Amlan Adithya
Biswas, present secretary Harsh Gupta and senior audit officer Paulson.
PRESSURE
DID IT
The reason for the audit being conducted right
from 2013 to 2017 was the constant pressure brought about by S S Hiremath, the
president of RTI Activists Association, Kalaburagi. “It was only after I
petitioned the Chief Minister and the State Statistics Department in May this
year about the lack of any government auditing regarding the accounts of the
Board that the current auditing was being done,” he told Express.
The
inspection report was out in August 2017 and the activist managed to get hold
of it in September after filing an RTI application. However, Hiremath is
unhappy with the report he has gained access to. “The state government had
sanctioned D1,880 crore to the Board to carry out development works during the
last four years. Only 40 per cent of the amount has been scrutinised by the
audit committee,” the activist charged. “If the inspection had been done for
the entire sum, the amount lost due to
irregularities committed would cross D500 crore,” he said.
HKRDB
FORMED in 2013
The
Hyderabad-Karnataka Region Development Board was formed after an order by Chief
Minister Siddaramaiah on November 6, 2013. The Board caters to the
Hyderabad-Karnataka region and its jurisdiction is spread over the 40 Assembly
constituencies in Bidar, Bellary, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Raichur and Yadgir
districts.
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